Students use origami to raise money for Japan

Students at a north-central Iowa school are learning the art of paper folding called origami as a way to raise money to help victims of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Lisa Jorgenson, an art teacher at Webster City Middle School, says they’re partnering with a national non-profit group called Students Rebuild, which helped raise money to build schools in Haiti.

“They want to come up with $200,000 to help reconstruct some of the homes and buildings in Japan,” Jorgenson says. “For every crane they receive, they get $2 and it is believed in Japan that for every thousand paper cranes that are created, a wish will be granted.” She says the students were interested in finding a way to lend a hand after last month’s disasters in Japan and this project seemed both worthy and inexpensive.

“We supply the paper and they simply have to make a paper crane, which can be more difficult than it sounds but the kids like a challenge, and for every crane they create, the Bezos Family Foundation donates $2 to Architecture for Humanity,” Jorgenson says. “The only money spent is on paper and sending it out.” Learn more about this project at: “www.studentsrebuild.org“.